Jane Honeycutt obituaries

Gale / Hugh Smith, Smiths / , /

I started searching for obituaries for Jane’s mother and father since they had died in 1962 and 1964 respectively and would have information more recent than anything I had found so far.

HONEYCUTT, JAMES MICHAEL died 19 Sep 1964
HONEYCUTT, JAMES MICHAEL – born April 26, 1875, deceased this life September 19, 1964 at the age of 89 years, 4 months and 24 days. He was married to IDA BELL RISDON about the year of 1895 and to this union was born nine children. His wife and 1 son preceded him in death. He professed a hope in Christ and in May 19, 1950, he came to Tunnel Hill Baptist Church by letter, where he remained a member until death. He leaves to mourn his passing 4 sons, GEORGE of Robbins, Tennessee, ELVIN of Norma, Tennessee, JONAH of Oneida and JOHN of Covington, Kentucky; 4 daughters, JANE CROSS of Elk Valley, MARY ANN YADEN of Michigan, FLORA THOMAS of Covington, Kentucky, DAISY YORK of Helenwood, Tennessee and a number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great great-grandchildren and a host of relatives and friends. We feel our loss is his eternal gain in Glory. Tunnel Hill Baptist Church. (Source: Minutes of the West Union Assoc. of United Baptist Churches, 1964, p15)

 

Jane Honeycutt was then Jane Cross of Elk Valley. I couldn’t find anything on the internet so I emailed Trulene in Tennessee and asked her for advice.

Trulene quickly found information. Jane Honeycutt married Letcher Cross in Campbell County on  11 Feb 1946.  Letcher Cross was a WWI veteran born  20 Sept 1890 and died 1 Nov 1976.  Jane is buried beside him in Valley View Cemetery in Elk Valley in the same cemetery as John F. Smith.

It took me forever to find the Clay and John F. Smith graves when I visited Valley View Cemetery in May. I had walked the entire cemetery going down every row so I had undoubtedly walked right past these graves as well.

Cross, Janie H. – died May 17, 1979
Funeral for Mrs Jane H. Cross, 78, of Jellico , who died last Thursday at Jellico Community Hospital was Saturday at the Elk Valley Church of God the Rev. J C Murray officiating.  Burial was at Valley View Cemetery.Survivors include three sons: David Smith, Cincinnati, Ohio; Clay Smith, Rossford, Ohio; and Hugh Smith, Toledo, Ohio; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, four brothers, George Honeycutt, Brimstone, Tenn, Elvin Honeycutt, Huntsville, Tenn., John Honeycutt, Oneida, and three sisters Mrs Mary Ann Vaden, Detroit, Mich., Mrs Flora Thomas, Covington, Ky and Mrs Daisy York, Tampa, Fla.Ellison Funeral Home of Jellico was in charge.

 

Cross, Letcher – died November 1, 1976
Letcher Cross, 84, of Elk Valley, died at the VA Hospital, Murfreesboro.He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Janie Honeycutt Cross of Toledo, Ohio; three step-sons, Dave Smith of Cincinnati, Ohio, Clay Smith and Hugh Smith of Toledo, Ohio; one brother, Oscar Cross of Cincinnati, Ohio; one step-brother, Charlie Davis of Jonesboro, Tenn; five grandchildren.Funeral services were held Wednesday, November 3 at 2 p.m. at Elk Valley Church of God by the Rev. J.C. Murray. Burial was in Valley View Cemetery.Ellison Funeral Home, Jellico was in charge of arrangements.

 

From all this information I should be able to get proof of death from the funeral home in Tennessee. One down and one to go.
Janie Cross headstone.
Janie Cross footstone.

 

George Crabtree

George Crabtree

Gale / Hugh Smith /

I found the following article a book of obituaries and the kind ladies at the Campbell County Historical Society dug through old records and found George was convicted of murder, appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and his 1o year sentence was upheld.

It gets easier and easier to understand why dad left Tennessee and never looked back.

George-Crabtree-kills-Noah-Crabtree

 

 

Hugh Smith Paternal Family Tree

Hugh Smith Paternal Family Tree

Gale / Hugh Smith / /

There’s a lot of information on this. The last three of four generations before dad ended up including a lot of criminals. When I found out his biological father, George, murdered his younger brother Noah and spent ten years in prison for the crime (I guess murder didn’t get a life sentence in 1932) I officially threw in the towel.

There may be good stuff in his lineage (like fighting in the Revolutionary War) but I now have a clear understanding why dad left Tennessee behind and would never let it touch his family. I sincerely hope he did not know who his biological father was and I also hope he was still living in Virginia when all mess surrounding the murder was going on.

Hugh-Smith-Family-Tree-Paternal-lg

Hugh Smith’s birth certificate

Hugh Smith’s birth certificate

Gale / Hugh Smith / , , /

With the help of my friends at the Campbell County Historical Society I had found my dad’s mother. Eliza Jane Honeycutt born in April 1901, who became Janie Smith, and lastly Janie Cross.

What I really wanted to know was who my dad’s father was. The ladies at the historical society warned me that in 1920 illegitimate births were usually not recorded and often the children were raised as the grandparent’s late in life offspring.

For me it was a due diligence issue. Once I realized that my dad was probably born Hugh Honeycutt, son of Eliza Jane Honeycutt, I felt I had to try one more time with Tennessee Vital Records for a birth certificate. The ladies at the society rolled their eyes at the futility of my effort, but it was something I wouldn’t feel good about if I didn’t try.

So I filled out the little form again, sent my money again, crossed my fingers, and hoped for success.

On April 5, 2013 my efforts were rewarded. I received my dad’s birth certificate in the mail. Based on Eliza Jane Honeycutt they had found it.

Those words don’t convey the magnitude of this information. After staring dumbfounded at the certificate for several minutes, I ran to the phone and called Trulene to exclaim “I got it! I got my dad’s birth certificate.” She couldn’t believe it and wanted me to read all the details.

This may sound stupid for some, but as a mom myself, my heart melted at the idea of my dad arriving at 1:00 AM on September 23, 1920 in ElkValley to an unwed mother. I couldn’t help but think of my dad as a tiny, little guy who had no idea the mess he had entered the world in.

His mother stated his father was George Crabtree of ElkValley and aged 30 years. She was 18. I suspect she was getting some kind of financial assistance, maybe at a poor farm, and whoever had delivered the child submitted the birth information to the state.

It didn’t take a whole lot of checking to find out George had married Josephine Honeycutt in 1914  and already had two children with his wife when he got Eliza Jane pregnant. What a great guy.

So Eliza Jane had an illegitimate Elihu (pronounced Eli Hugh) Honeycutt who eventually became Hugh Smith.

Hugh-Smith-birth-certificate

I can find a lot of detail about Eliza Jane’s family – everyone except her. My suspicion, and this is only based on my gut reaction and what my daddy said, is that she became a black sheep in her family and was shunned so no one knew what happened to her.

I want to find out if she was in a poor farm after daddy’s birth. One of dad’s few comments on his early life was that there was a steady progression of new boyfriends through their house and he was sometimes kicked out if the new one didn’t want a child. So my thinking is she was rejected by her family over the pregnancy – which makes me wonder if there was some family connection.

The birth certificate said she was a housekeeper at the time of dad’s birth and George was a farmer. He wasn’t a farmer – he was not a land owner and worked for other people. I would love to know who she was housekeeper for.

So following more suspicions, I suspect Eliza Jane became Janie and met John F. Smith who was willing to marry her. I suspect John Smith abhorred the idea of her previous child. They then had a couple children – Clay and David – and I think dad became an unwelcome reminder of Janie’s previous life and was treated as such. Dad had really ugly stories from his grade school years that seethed with great hate from his parents.

Somewhere along the way Elihu Honeycutt morphed to Hu Smith on the 1930 Census and the Hugh Smith by the 1940 Census. I have to tell you, I can’t believe my father stuck with the name Smith since I figure John Smith was one bastard extraordinare. What else explains my dad never mentioning a man in his childhood? That man had to be horrible.

So I sit here as Gale Smith and I think there’s a good chance I should be Gale Honeycutt, because John Smith was NOT my father’s father. Or maybe I should be Gale Crabtree. Oh that’s just peachy – the name of some ass who girls pregnant while he was married and having kids with his wife. Just dandy.

Why is God’s name did he go with Smith when I think he had to abhor the man and never once mentioned him to me ever in any way?

The only thing that matters is that he was the man who was forged by the miserable circumstances of his upbringing and somewhere along the way he became Hugh Smith – a man of such strength, integrity, and character that I aspire every day to be half the person he was. I am the daughter he wanted me to be – I have honor, I have integrity, I have a strength of character that has carried my through crushing life experiences.

I would like to have the opportunity to ask him why he stuck with Smith when it probably came from an abusive man he detested. I’ll never get the answer to that question.

Elihu Honeycutt to Hugh Smith. My daddy. My hero. The finest man I’ve ever known. The father I adore and I still miss every day. I wish he was still here and 93 years old and driving my crazy. And trust me – if he was here and living with me he’d be telling me what was what and ticking me off and driving me crazy. And I’d be loving every minute of it. Kindred spirits. What can you say?

 

 

Information learned in Tennessee Part 4

Gale / Hugh Smith, Smiths / , /

Because of the story mom had shared with me I knew dad had been married and divorced before WWII so I looked for that while I was in Tennessee.

According to mom the sequence was marriage, repeated infidelities by his wife, divorce, enlistment in Army, birth of child long after dad had disappeared from the scene.

I found the marriage record from February 1, 1942 and noticed she was older than dad. I also recognized daddy’s hand-writing:

It was a little creepy for me, but I found a family tree on ancestry.com posted by CharlotteMcGuire62 that listed dad as the father to Stephen Hugh Smith. Dad was the first of Jeanette’s 3 husbands (Charles McGuire had been her second husband). It listed dad’s birth November 23, 1906 and his death as February 1980. Not correct but close enough that someone had knowledge about him. But then mom had said a man had contacted her after dad’s death saying he was dad’s son and wanting part of dad’s estate.

Stephen Hugh Smith was born on December 20, 1942.

I couldn’t find the divorce, but dad’s induction date into the army as October 9, 1943.

So the actual sequence of events was marriage, maybe repeated infidelities by his wife, birth of child, divorce, enlistment in Army.

I was momentarily rattled when I ran across this, but in a minute I decided I didn’t care.

My dad was such an incredibly honorable man and good father that I believe he did the right thing back then just as he did all the time with us. I will never know what contributed to him leaving Tennessee for good and not having contact with anyone from there again. In my heart I believe he would never leave a child that was his.

Mom had said he never told us because he was afraid we would start to fear that he would abandon us too. When she told me I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard because dad was the most steadfastly loyal person I’d ever known and he would never have left us. After finding out the child was born before he divorced and enlisted I can really understand his desire to keep it secret.

The only question I have is who twisted the story? Did dad tell mom the straight story and she sugar-coated it for me or did he alter the sequence of events for her. My dad was almost painfully honest, so I suspect he laid it on the line for her. And I understand the sugar-coating. It was a bit of shock, but when all is said and done I trust my dad.

I did research and Stephen Hugh Smith served in Vietnam and died at the age of 55 in 1998 so I will never know what happened.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8